Economist and Former Finance Minister, Winston Jordan has urged the Government to come clean on a number of issues, specifically relating to the financing and repayment on some aspects of the gas-to-energy project, suggesting that the Government might have already committed its share of future oil resources to repay ExxonMobil for the pipeline aspect of the project.
The laying of the pipeline is expected to be completed at the end of this year to the tune of almost US$1 Billion.
The pipeline is a critical component of the project which is being funded by the oil company and will be repaid by Guyana via annual payments of US$55 million for 20 years. But among other things the former Finance Minister wants to know why is the amount not listed in country’s debt profile among other things.
“If this is a loan, why doesn’t it appear in the debt profile of the country? How much is the loan, what are the terms, we don’t know because we have not seen an agreement for this loan. The thing is here, the external loans Act says, all loans that have been concluded the government should be brought to the Parliament as soon as possible thereafter. This has been going on for such a long time to the extend that they have now completed the pipeline,” Jordan stated.
Jordan said if the government is not careful, the project could be a tragedy in the making.
He believes that the agreement with ExxonMobil should have been taken to the Parliament for scrutiny. He said the issue is much more serious than simply repayment, but it can affect the country’s accounting arrangements.
“These are stuff that are taking place within our country and affects the accounts, it will affect the external accounts because foreign currency is involved, loans are involved, repayment is involved, it is going to affect our financial aspect in terms of money going into the Natural Resource Fund because the money going into the fund will be reduced by the repayment amount you agreed,” the Former Finance Minister said.
He said if the Government has committed to repaying ExxonMobil from the country’s future share of oil revenues, it will be illegal, since the Natural Resources Act, prohibits such an arrangement.
“It seems implicitly, that the government has agreed with Exxon that they can take as part repayment from our share, our future share—monies for the loan that they give for the pipeline and I say this because we have not seen the agreement in relation to the financing of the pipeline,” Jordan stated.
Source: newssourcegy.com